Singapore Nat'l Youth Championships - Day 4 pulsating and razor-sharp

by Singapore Sailing Federation on 24 Mar 2013

Singapore National Youth Championships 2013 - Day 4 Icarus Sailing Media http://www.icarussailingmedia.com/

With three days down and two more to go, the 342-boat fleet in the Fish & Co. National Youth Sailing Championships 2013, once again, displayed pulsating and razor-sharp action on the penultimate day of the regatta. With the racing intensifying, there was a shake-up in the overall standings in a number of classes.

To date, 12 races have been held across all fleets, with one more race scheduled to take place tomorrow afternoon at 1pm before the highly anticipated medal race, which is set to kick off at 3pm.

Singapore National Youth Championships 2013 - Day 4 © Icarus Sailing Media http://www.icarussailingmedia.com/

In the Laser Radial, Ryan Lo continued his confident form by nailing another three wins to extend his overall lead in the fleet to an astounding 33 points over fellow competitor Jevyn Ong, while the third and fourth places on the leaderboard saw no change in ownership, with Amos Lim and Hilary Myen Tan maintaining their performance to safely hold onto their top five spots with 61 and 67 points respectively.

Moving on to the Laser 4.7, the 20-boat fleet served up three nail-biting races for the spectators on shore – with current leader of the fleet Bernie Chin, and Australian sailor Conor Nicholas engaging in an extremely close fight. Conor Nicholas had his eyes firmly fixated on the prestigious Champion’s title, and was determined to shuffle the positions on the leaderboard. As such, he launched several aggressive attacks against Bernie at the start line – making it seem almost like a match race tactic. With both sailors being equally talented and experienced, the battle was without a doubt exciting yet heart pounding.

At the end of the day, Bernie Chin managed to take home two wins out of the three races held, with the third race won by Conor Nicholas. Currently, Bernie is leading the fleet with 22 points, while Conor is closing the gap at 39 points, and third place is still dominated by Samantha Yom, with 56 points.

Singapore National Youth Championships 2013 - Day 4 © Icarus Sailing Media http://www.icarussailingmedia.com/

In the Optimist Gold Fleet, the competition stepped up a level, with the sailors experiencing mixed fortunes on the fourth day of racing. Edward Tan, who was dominating the fleet for the first three days, suffered either a bout of nerves, or a not-so-pleasant day of sailing today – he posted 16, 10, 28 from the three races held – relinquishing him to the second place on the leaderboard with 88 points – 15 points behind current leader, Fathin Rasyiqin.

Fathin Rasyiqin experienced a good day out at sea today, sailing a 3, 4, 7 to put her comfortably at the top of the leaderboard. With just one more race to go before the medal race, Edward Tan will definitely have to give everything he has and more in order to snatch the first place back from Fathin Rasyiqin.

In the 420, the fight between the top three in the fleet continues to heat up - Savannah Siew and Kimberly Lim posted 1, 1, 2 from the three races held today and remains the leader of the fleet, while Elisa Yukie Yokoyama and Jazlene Ong is in second and continues to try and close up the gap on their compatriot. The fleet also witnessed some dramatic action today, with Kimberly Lim and Elisa Yukie Yokoyama protesting against each other after an incident out on water.

The battle lines have been drawn for the final day of racing tomorrow, 23rd March. Be sure not to miss the highly anticipated medal race, which will see the top 10 sailors of each fleet engage in a show-stopping race to determine the Champion. In addition, in order to bring the action and excitement closer to the cheering supporters and spectators on shore, the organisers have arranged for the medal race to be held right in front of the jetty at the National Sailing Centre. Spectators can also easily identify the top three sailors in the fleet by looking out for the coloured stickers on the sails; the first will carry a yellow sticker, while the second will have a blue sticker and the third, a red sticker.